PART of the brain circuitry necessary for forming the vital bond between mother and infant has been identified. The same pathways might play a role in behavioural disorders such as autism.
Previous work suggested that the morphine-like opiates produced by the body play a role in behaviours such as mother-child bonding. So Francesca D’Amato’s team at the National College of the Research Institute of Neuroscience, Psychobiology and Psychopharmacology in Rome created mice that cannot respond to opiates because they lack the gene for the mu-opioid receptor.
The altered mice failed to make anywhere near the usual number of ultrasonic squeaks…
